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Monkey on baby's back
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-11-05 10:36
It's The Year of the Monkey - a lucky year on the Chinese lunar calendar -
and more couples have planned to give birth.
All Chinese have their sheng
xiao - one of the 12 animals used to symbolize the year when a person is
born.
The animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse,
sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Many believe babies born in the Year
of the Monkey will be cuter, brighter and more intelligent.
Beijing
Maternity Hospital is expecting to deliver about 10,000 babies this year, twice
the number of other years.
By October 31, 7,684 women had given birth at
the hospital and another 2,000 pregnant women have registered to give birth in
the next two months.
The hospital has had to turn doctors' offices into
wards and shorten the observation time for women.
Other hospitals in
Beijing are faced with similar situations.
Shanghai, Guangzhou and
Chengdu have also had more pregnant women this year, according to local health
bureaus.
Since the start of the one-child policy, people in China have
become particular with their children, not only providing them with more
nutritious food, better clothing and education, but even choosing the year of
their birth.
Last year was the Year of Sheep, which according to
tradition, is a year of bad fortune for children, so many mothers delayed their
plans to have a baby.
Liang Ke, a stewardess with Air China, will give
birth to her baby next month.
"My husband and I have waited for our baby
since we failed to have one in 2000, the Year of the Dragon," she
said.
The couple began preparations last year to have their first baby in
the Year of Monkey.
But experts said superstitious ideas bring those
babies more trouble than luck because the birth peak may have a range of ripple
effects.
For example, children born this year could have trouble entering
school and finding a job.
Experts said "dragon babies" or the millennium
babies born in 2000 have already faced problems.
In 2003, millennium
babies reached school age, putting heavy pressure on China's
kindergartens.
Li Ping, who works with the Ministry of Water Resources,
pays 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) on top of regular tuition for her son to attend a
kindergarten.
This year's "monkey babies" could create another birth peak
when they grow up and get married.
Experts believe Chinese couples can
bring real fortune to their children by avoiding giving birth in these so-called
lucky years.
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